44 RUSTLINGS IN THE ROCKIES. 



arrived we were surprised to find that a bear nad been at it, 

 and had torn it slightly and eaten a small portion of it, but 

 not enough to interfere with our purpose. As soon as Huff- 

 man had completed his work, Mike and I proceeded to skin 

 the carcass and take off the head. While thus engaged, and 

 while Huffman was packing his outfit on his horse, we heard 

 strange noises on the hillside above us, and looking up we 

 saw three grizzly bears charging down upon us. For a mo- 

 ment we were horror-stricken. They were between us and 

 our guns when we first saw them, and if we ran and left our 

 horses they would break loose and we would probably never 

 see them again. We dared not even leave them to tree our- 

 selves, and could not possibly mount them to get away, 

 for they were crazed with fright, and we were com- 

 pelled to stay by them. The bears had been there and got a 

 taste of the elk, just enough to make them ferocious, when 

 they had heard us coming back, and had retreated into the 

 woods. They had waited for us to get away as long as they 

 cared to, and had then resolved to drive us away or eat us up, 

 and they didn't seem to care which. 



They had evidently sized us up from away back on top of 

 the hill, and knew just what and who we were, and how 

 many there were of us. They seemed to come for gore, and 

 lots of it. 



It was the most frightful assault that ever I looked at. 

 They came like a band of redskins assaulting an emigrant train 

 and trying to stampede the stock. They were fairly jumping 

 over each other in their eagerness to be the first in the fight. 

 They were roaring like infuriated bulls, growling and snarling 

 like mad dogs, puffing and snorting like locomotive engines, 

 and the brush was cracking under them as if they were great 

 rocks rolling down from the top of some mountain peak. 

 Huffman had a buckskin lariat on " old sorrel " with a hack- 



